PRESERVE THE EMPIRE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 151, 29 June 1927, Page 4

PRESERVE THE EMPIRE.

AN ELOQUENT APPEAL. FOR PREFERENCE IN TRADE. BY BRITISH DELEGATE. An eloquent, and at times an impassioned, appeal that British markets should be held by the peoples of the British Empire was made by Sir Archibald Boyd Carpenter, a member of the British Motor Delegation, at the luncheon tendered the delegation in Christchurch by the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Motor Trade Association. "1 am not quarrelling with anvone in business who does the best for himself," Sir _ Archibald said. "But you cannot avoid this issue. While you may get more from a business point of view, and from the point of view of your own affairs in respect of monetary success, you are going to be faced with the fact that those views are wrong, and that there is a wider issue. "If Great Britain, irorn any cause, is unable to take 87 per cent of your products, where are you going to send them? Are there benevolent people who will come to you on their knees and say: We like your butter and for goodness sake send it to us! The markets of the world have to be held; but there is no reason why the markets of the British Empire should not be held among ourselves. (Hear, hear.) Anything that weakens one part of the Empire weakens another. What would be the position—and I speak quite plainly and frankly—if our financial position was hampered, or attacked, so that it could not carry on the ordinary services of Government. Suppose, for a moment, that the financial position became so acute that we had to reduce expenditure on the Navy. Who's going to look after your stuff going across the sea? Who's going to be so benevolent as to provide protection? The strength of one is the strength of all. Believe me, we live together, or die separately! You have mountains of tariffs being raised against you. I am not going to discuss the merits of tariffs—the main fact is that they are there. We have to look for markets, and where better can we look than within the four corners of the British Empire, where your strength is increased by our strength. That is the main position for us to face. Facing the Facts. "I should be a bad and evil missionary if I did not say to you: Please don't regard the factor of temporary advantage for it may be your permanent loss. You will find that that is the thing to be faced by every British citizen. We maintain that we are bringing down our costs and that we want your counsel and help in dealing with these matters, and ask you to give us of your best as we are giving of our best. Let us consider our difficulties, let us-take counsel, and let us by concerted action eradicate unemployment by inducing a greater flow of trade and thus add to the strength of the nations that make up the whole of the British nation. All Partners. "You are no longer daughters of ours, you are partners, and if consultation is not possible, what is the value of partnership? It would be better not to be there unless we can take counsel together. Never by anything you say, or do, do anything to irritate an opinion, or sentiment, or do anything to weaken a tie. You can explain and argue, but don't accept as ordinary fact every sort of little washtub conversation. Sometimes I think that more harm is done in political and industrial matters by the tittle-tattle of old wives over tubs—most of it is based on want of knowledge, on ignorance, on spite. You cannot afford to do that when -great interests are involved. You must come to a complete understanding, and never take up the attitude of a club, or a Roman's tea party. Big Issues at Stake. "We want your considered views, not bnly in respect of the motor trade, but on every phase of trade. Perhaps in these great decisions lies something bigger and greater. It is whether we are to exist. You cannot fight amongst yourselves and you must not take an attitude that will weaken yourselves, or any other portion of the British Empire. We have gone through the biggest struggle the world has ever known. -New Zealand sent the largest number of men in proportion to population that any Dominion sent to the war. I maintain that they are speaking to you to-day and they are asking you to remember that as they went to the aid of the Mother Country in the greatest of all struggles, so you should aid the Mother Country in her struggle to-day. They laid down their lives for New Zealand as much as for the Mother Country, and they know to-day that the success of one is the Buccess of the other, and that both should come together, or drop out of the "picture. In their message which they send you from beyond the skies they appeal to you r— and to me— to give of your strength, of your conviction, and of your courage; otherwise what they laid down their lives for is dust and ashes—gone beyond our ken—it is nothing! The British Empire represents the one factor in the whole •world that has stood always for combined peace, for the betterment of mankind, and the progress, health, and comfort of those sections of the community less well endowed with this world's goods." (Continued applause.)